Breathe
by Yunagirlamy
Summary: 100 theme challenge. But as he stood next to Rapunzel, hearing her curse his name and squeezing the life out of him, he began to doubt that hormones were to blame.


**Author's Notes: Hello! Welcome to my second Tangled… "story". Well, fan fiction I suppose. Longer than the previous one—yay! (Again in Eugene style… or would it be Flynn style? Hmmm…)**

**Summary: But as he stood next to Rapunzel, hearing her curse his name and squeezing the life out of him, he began to doubt that hormones were to blame. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled. Or Eugene Fitzherbert, sadly. Damn it! **

**10. Breathe.**

He _really_ should have seen this coming. He had no idea _why_ he thought this wouldn't happen. It _had_ to happen. After all, who _else_ would carry on the legend of his… well, legendary smoulder?

Rapunzel had slapped him for that statement – at the time, he'd blamed it on hormones. But as he stood next to Rapunzel, hearing her curse his name and squeezing the life out of him, he began to doubt that hormones were to blame. The Queen – Rapunzel's mother with whom she shared features – was standing on the other side of Rapunzel, also holding a hand, and reassuring him that Rapunzel didn't mean any of the insults she said. Eugene didn't believe the Queen's words, even though he had no reason to think she was lying. No, Rapunzel _definitely_ had something against him. He racked his brain, trying to find something that he said that could have offended Rapunzel.

"_I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smoulder." _No, that couldn't have been it. Rapunzel had hardly reacted to it, even if he _had_ been extremely charming then.

"_Frankly I'm too scared to ask about the frog." _Well, she _did_ love her pet frog and calling the frog a frog, which in actual fact wasn't a frog, could have offended her. But, perhaps not to the point that she'd be screaming insults at him like this.

"_You know, Blondie, I'm starting to think that you don't actually want to see these lanterns. I think that as soon as I came into your tower, you changed your dream to torturing me for the rest of my life." _Rapunzel had giggled and smiled at him then, but she _could_ have secretly been offended by it. Then again, she could have not been offended by it.

Suddenly a sharp shooting pain in his hand startled Eugene out of his thoughts.

"Eugene Fitzherbert, I am going to _kill_ you!"

"Eugene, she doesn't mean that."

"Yeah, right. And my name isn't Flynn Rider."

"It _isn't_, you idiot!"

"Just concentrate, sweetie. Ignore your stupid husband."

_What_? Now her _mother_ was insulting him? Now he _knew_ he hadn't done anything to offend her! (Except steal Rapunzel's tiara.)

"Eugene, you are the biggest bas—AARGH!"

_Wow, that was lucky. For me anyway. _Eugene stared down at his wife, worry etched on his face. Rapunzel was red in the face, with sweat running down from her forehead. She breathed rapidly, letting out screams of pain whenever she had the urge to push.

Which was a lot. This kid really could not wait to get into the world, it seemed. _Impatient just like her mother_, Eugene thought.

_Ah_… maybe _that's_ where the problem lay! Eugene had been adamant that their child was going to be a girl, while Rapunzel was determined that their child was going to be a boy. Perhaps she was angry at him for not agreeing with her? Well it wasn't his fault that she had wanted a boy and he hadn't. He actually had a _very_ good reason for not wanting a boy – there was the danger that a boy would end up looking as handsome as he did; and only _one_ person could have his dashingly good looks, and that was him! Plus, little boys could be real horrors sometimes—_that_ put Eugene off the idea of a boy quite a lot. But a girl…

Girls _always_ looked like their mothers, it was a fact—just looking at Rapunzel and her mother could prove that. Having a girl meant that someone else would share Rapunzel's beautiful eyes, beautiful smile, beautiful mouth – everything that was beautiful about Rapunzel, their daughter would share.

It was also a fact that daughters were Daddy's Little Girl. Being a Daddy's Little Girl meant that you had a close bond with your father, and Eugene would have loved nothing more than to have a gorgeous little girl to dote on him. To always expect him to read bedtime stories to her, to pick her right back up when she fell, to hold her close when tears were streaming down her face, to promise to beat up whoever had upset her… yep, the idea of a little girl was really quite appealing.

"C'mon, Rapunzel! Just a few more pushes and you're there!"

Eugene smiled and leant down low to Rapunzel. "Just think, Rapunzel; the more you push, the sooner we'll have our little girl—"

"—boy—" Rapunzel strained out.

"—and we'll finally know the wonders of what being a parent feels like."

"And I'll be able to—AAARRGGHHHH!"

Eugene grinned inwardly – this kid liked him already. So it definitely had to be a girl; a boy would have probably favoured Rapunzel.

"Our little girl is impatient, eh?" Eugene bit down on his lip as Rapunzel tightened her grip—Eugene wasn't sure if it was because of the pain she was in, or if she thought he was being annoying.

"Flynn Rider, if you _don't_—!"

"One more push, sweetie!"

"I thought my name _wasn't_ Flynn Rider…?" Eugene asked, a smirk on his face.

"Shut _up_!" Rapunzel yelled accompanied by a look that made Eugene gulp and seriously consider about shutting up.

But the truth was, he was freaking out – and when he was freaking out, he had a bit of a tendency to speak and talk and chat. Not about anything random, though. No, he always talked about what was going on at exact moment in time. And in that exact moment in time, Rapunzel was giving birth to his first child. All kind of thoughts were running through his head: _Is Rapunzel okay? Will she survive? Will the baby survive? What if this kid doesn't like me? What if I do something bad and they hate me forever? What if I'm the worst father in the world?_

Then, he heard a calming voice.

"Eugene… it's okay."

Eugene looked down to Rapunzel and suddenly noticed that she wasn't pushing anymore. Did that mean…?

A baby's cry abruptly rang throughout the room. Eugene's jaw dropped wide open.

_I'm… a father. I'm a FATHER._

Eugene watched as the midwife wrapped his child in a pink blanket. As she passed the child to Rapunzel, she remarked, "Congratulations. You have a healthy princess."

_Princess? _

A wide grin set itself onto Eugene's face. He knelt down by Rapunzel and gazed at his… daughter. The word sounded so foreign, but yet so… _right_.

"What name have you decided on?" the midwife questioned. Rapunzel looked to Eugene – and he cringed. Since Rapunzel had wanted a boy and Eugene had wanted a girl, they both agreed that they would get to choose the name for the gender they wanted. Eugene had spent many sleepless nights trying to think of a name for a little girl. He didn't want one that sounded unusual (with no offence to his wife of course, she had a beautiful name), but one that didn't sound normal. So he'd set himself a pretty damn hard challenge.

"Well… I haven't really thought of one yet," he admitted with a sheepish smile. Then one sprang to his mind. "Hey, how about—"

"—we are _not_ calling her 'Princess', Eugene."

"I thought it was a good idea," Eugene sulked, crossing his arms. This prompted a laugh from Rapunzel.

"Who's the baby here – you or our daughter?"

Eugene didn't respond—he was far too busy thinking of a name for his princess. After all, she couldn't go throughout life unnamed.

"Eu-_gene_?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Stop worrying about a name – we can decide on one later. For now, just focus on the fact that she is breathing and is alive and well." Rapunzel smiled down at her daughter. "Do you want to hold her?"

His answer came too quick. "Yes! Oops, sorry."

Rapunzel giggled. "That's okay. Here." Gently, she passed the baby girl down to Eugene… and he immediately fell in love. He couldn't tell who she would look most like, but that didn't matter. She would be gorgeous, Eugene was sure of it. Even if no one else thought so, he would.

Right there and then, he secretly chose a name – he would mention it to Rapunzel when they were choosing names later, and hoped that she would love it, too. However, Eugene found that he didn't care if Rapunzel didn't like it – he would insist that it was to her name, the name he chose. He could then proudly tell everyone he chose his daughter's name.

_Amelia _– it was a name fitting for a princess.

_His_ princess.

**AN: I tried not to make it **_**too**_** soppy. Did it work? Anyway, I hate scenes where parents get asked for a name for their kid and they spout out the first, middle and last name. I sit there thinking, 'The hell…?' Because I'm sorry, but I don't think it quite works like that. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed the story. I feel this isn't as well written as my last one, but then again, that one was slightly more serious than this one. **

**Yunagirlamy, 7.2.11.**


End file.
